Using models based on the networking of websites and the transmission of digital cellphone signals, researchers are gaining new insights into the way lung cancer spreads in the body.

A new study, performed by a team including San Diego researchers, merges the seemingly disparate fields of biology and communication theory, and may lead to better treatment plans for patients.

Researchers analyzed records from lung cancer patients by adapting technology originally developed by Google and Qualcomm co-founder Andrew Viterbi.

Some parts of the body were found to be “spreaders” of metastatic lung cancer cells. Others, called “sponges,” receive cancer cells but don’t spread them as readily. This means some locations for metastasis are more dangerous than others.

The study was published in the journal Cancer Research on Monday. Researchers from The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Clinic Medical Group, UCSD Moores Cancer Center, the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC and other institutions took part.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in the United States, according to the American Lung Association. An estimated 160,000 Americans died of lung cancer last year. Once the disease spreads, the prognosis is poor.

“Generally in lung cancer, there’s been a feeling that once it becomes metastatic, the seed is there, and that you don’t do many localized therapies, except for palliation,” said Dr. Karen Reckamp, co-director of the Lung Cancer and Thoracic Oncology Program at City of Hope in Duarte.

“This (study) means there might be reasons to do localized therapy at a metastatic site,” Reckamp said.

Certain types of lung cancers are known to metastasize disproportionately, Reckamp said. The study indicates this may be true of all lung cancers, and may even be a general characteristic of metastasis, she said.

A follow-up study is examining whether the “spreader” and “sponge” finding is valid for colon cancer, said Kelly Bethel, a pathologist at Scripps Clinic Medical Group who took part in the study.

The study shows the benefits of bringing in knowledge from distant fields that appears unrelated on the surface, Bethel said.

Google’s PageRank algorithm predicts which websites are most likely to contain pertinent information by examining the density of links between sites. The Viterbi Algorithm predicts the most likely path of digital wireless signals through a cellphone network. Invented by Andrew Viterbi in 1966, it is used for error correction in Qualcomm’s digital wireless technology.

Paul K. Newton of USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering was first author of the study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Peter Kuhn of TSRI was senior author.

Newton supplied insights from PageRank and the Viterbi Algorithm for the study, Bethel said. The study analyzed records of 3,827 deaths of untreated cancer patients between 1914 and 1943, including 163 lung cancer patients. This was before widespread use of radiation and chemotherapy for lung cancer. Since the patients were untreated, their records indicated the natural progression of the disease.

“We began by trying to understand the path that cancer takes as it metastasizes through the body,” Bethel said. “When you die with metastatic lung cancer, you end with metastases in multiple locations throughout the body. But not everybody gets metastases in the same place. So we’re trying to understand the pathways that cancer takes.”